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antagonistchan · 3 years

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really long post sorry lol but i have so many thoughts about this that i so desperately need to get out

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: Cheating in Transformers.

For some backstory; I’ve vaguely known about Transformers as long as I can remember (I had a bunch of Armada minicons as a little kid, and my Dad liked G1 when he was a kid and told me about it a couple times (and eventually I inherited his old toys)). And then I really got into Transformers myself in 2006 when I was 8 years old, when I started watching Transformers: Cybertron (which was already over halfway done at that point, oops, but still). And then I got REALLY into Transformers myself in 2008, when I truly discovered the Transformers fandom (I discovered tfwiki, and I discovered a couple Transformers youtubers who I actually still follow today, and I realized that I wanted to start collecting Transformers...); ever since then, I’ve been a hardcore Transformers fan. Transformers has consistently been at least one of my biggest fandoms this whole time. And most of the time it’s my absolute biggest, I’ve just had a couple phases here and there of thinking “maybe I care about this other thing just as much as if not more than Transformers” (most notably during my Vocaloid phase from 2015-2018). My favorite video game of all time is the Mass Effect trilogy, and a couple weeks ago I was thinking “there’s probably nothing that could ever top Mass Effect as my all-time favorite game” and then a week later I realized “Actually, no, there’s one thing that could potentially push Mass Effect aside, and that would be my dream Transformers game”.

So, I'm currently 23, I got into Transformers when I was 8, and I’ve been a hardcore fan since I was ten. More than half of my life. Way more than half of my conscious life since the first few years don’t really count.

So, with that context in mind, returning to the point of this post: Cheating.

I don’t like it when Transformers cheat. The robot mode and the altmode are extremely important to me, but ultimately, the most important part of a Transformer is the transformation between the two itself. And when it’s cheating, I feel a little... well, cheated.

Point 1: Bayverse. When I first saw the Bayverse designs, I was immediately put off because I knew that those designs couldn’t translate into toys without cheating. The only toys that even remotely approach movie-accurate transformations are Masterpieces and old Leader-class toys, and even then it’s not fully there. So like, the Bayverse designs feel like they’re missing the point of Transformers. And remember, I was a kid back then. I’m not saying I was a super mature kid or anything; rather, I was put off because of my childlike priorities. I wanted a toy that didn’t lie to me.

The Bumblebee-style designs are a step in the right direction; the characters are all actually recognizable as themselves now. But the whole design philosophy is still wildly out of scale with what’s actually possible in a toy. And god, as I get older, the more and more I do actually understand the appeal of the Bayverse design philosophy. It is a really cool and creative and interesting design philosophy. But it’s a good design philosophy for a movie, NOT for a toy. So even though I actually appreciate the Bayverse style now, it still stings that it doesn’t really understand toys, and the only Bayverse-style toys I’d ever be willing to buy are the insanely expensive ones.

(Also, it’ll always sting at least re: non-Bumblebee designs that the most high-profile part of the brand for so long was one of the least representative, and was so radically different from everything else. To a lot of people, Bayverse is Transformers. If those people are hardcore fans... I don’t mind too much that Bayverse defined Transformers for them. I can’t fully relate, but I do relate a little (these movies have been around and huge for more than half of my life, I definitely have some nostalgia for them), and they clearly have a lot of love for it and that largely placates me. But the fact that Bayverse also defined Transformers to a lot of casual consumers- THAT makes me wildly uncomfortable)

I had a similar initial reaction to Animated’s designs, but then Animated’s designs actually won me over because the designers used some sort of blood magic to make the toys actually work. The toys actually transform the way they do in the show! Incredible! And even at reasonable prices, and looking good in both modes (at worst, there’s some minor kibble and visible robot bits)! They actually did understand the point of Transformers, and I feel ashamed for having ever doubted them! Animated is actually one of the highest points of Transformers, both in media and in the toys! God, I love Animated!

Point 2: Speaking of Animated, we gotta talk about Wreck-Gar.

And by “We gotta talk about Wreck-Gar”, I mean “Wreck-Gar is actually perfectly fine and everyone’s way too harsh on him”. Animated Wreck-Gar is one of the most infamous backpack-formers, and backpack-forming is one of the most infamous methods of cheating.... but honestly, with Wreck-Gar, it doesn’t feel like cheating at all.

Yeah, he’s got most of a dump truck hanging off his back... but it feels like that’s the point. A dump truck is already just a cargo delivery system, so with Wreck-Gar, it just feels like the robot is still just a cargo delivery system. He doesn’t have a backpack because he’s poorly-designed, he has a backpack because he has a backpack.

That’s not to say the backpack-forming doesn’t have any issues. It does still create two problems- that is, it restricts his waist articulation and gives him balance issues. Those are both unfortunate. But it’s not cheating.

Kibble doesn’t feel like cheating if it feels like it’s supposed to be there.

Point 3: Fake kibble.

CHUG toys like to cheat a lot, especially lately.

For instance, PotP Punch/Counterpunch. Counterpunch’s chest is not the actual windows; the real windows are in his feet and slot over Counterpunch’s chest.

This is... kinda clever. It’s still cheating, but the fake thing is just hidden inside the real one, so everything’s kinda in the same place.

But again, it is still cheating, and I feel like cheating misses the point for me.

In this case, they’re clearly cheating because it makes the two modes look better. And they’re right. If the altmode used Counterpunch’s real chest, it’d be too small; and if Counterpunch used the altmode’s real windows, it’d be too big. I get it. But I just don’t think that’s worth the cheating.

But much like actual kibble, sometimes fake kibble doesn’t feel like cheating.

Optimus Prime has had many many toys with fake cheating over the years, because they’ve experimented with so many ways for him to transform but like to keep his design mostly intact (hell, that’s part of why they’ve experimented so much- Floro Dery’s take on his design is really hard to replicate in a toy). And they have varying levels of “does this feel like cheating”.

Classics Voyager Optimus Prime is cool, but his fake kibble is absolutely cheating.

Powermaster Prime doesn’t feel like cheating at all to me. Part of that is because in the Masterforce anime (which I saw before I’d even seen the toy), they don’t hide how he actually transforms in the slightest. They show him transforming, and he transforms like the toy. There, it feels like they just wanted him to transform different, but wanted to keep the iconic details, rather than making him transform different for the sake of the iconic details.

Earthrise Optimus Prime’s fake kibble is mostly cheating, but the way it cheats is actually so interesting that, if I force myself to think of it the way I think of Powermaster Prime- pretend that it admits it transforms funny- I can actually accept it as somewhat not cheating.

But there’s one Optimus Prime that doesn’t use fake kibble at all and still ends up with a Floro Dery-accurate robot mode. I really love the way this Optimus Prime transforms.

It just fucking sucks that this Optimus Prime’s vehicle mode is so bad that even I- who prioritizes the transformation above the vehicle mode- am willing to say “Wow, this toy is garbage”.

I’m speaking of Classics Deluxe Optimus Prime. The robot mode isn’t as good as Earthrise’s, but it was good at the time, and god, that transformation is absolutely beautiful. But jesus, that vehicle mode is ugly as shit. I really wish they’d give Classics Deluxe’s general design another go, have an Optimus that transforms just about the same way but doesn’t have the worst fucking vehicle mode of all time.

Point 4: Partsforming.

I don’t usually like partsforming. I have a hard time accepting Earthrise Cliffjumper even though it’s mostly very good because the partsforming is so much.

But sometimes- and I think you might be noticing a pattern after the kibble and fake kibble bits- partsforming doesn’t feel like cheating for me.

Partsforming typically feels right when it actually gets so egregious that it loops back around to being Really Good, Actually.

For instance, RiD01 Ultra Magnus. His entire vehicle mode basically splits in half, and one half becomes his legs while the other half becomes everything else. The fact that he has to split in half so dramatically and then recombine equally dramatically makes it feel like an inventive and unique transformation instead of a cheat.

#antagonist originals #transformers #maccadam #long post #i might turn this post into a video essay someday #so i'll also tag it as #reference #so that i can keep the link handy

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machsabre · 5 years

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I mentioned elsewhere that was I was thinking of doing a few retro designs for some of the more modern characters for the older franchises. I don't mind it when Windblade, Drift, Barricade and the other new guys are inserted into G1 stories... I just wish they'd adjust their looks to look a little more Floro Dery-like in design. Guido Guidi did a few of them with Drift and Barricade... And I thought it might be kinda fun to do it the Unicron Trilogy. What would they look like in that universe, design-wise. Well, someone decided to commission me for Windblade and it came a lot sooner than the others. The thing to remember with Armada is that a lot of the cast members looked nothing like their previous incarnations. Wheeljack looked like Sideswipe. Cyclonus didn't have his bunny ears. Prime didn't have his window boobs. Megatron had antlers. And so on. It was not uncommon to see a character called something that looked nothing like what you expected. (Seriously, later on, the guy who looked exactly like Wheeljack was called Downshift.) I wanted to invoke a bit of that design motif, while retaining the colors scheme. The concept idea here is that she transformed into a red and black SR-71. (Specifically the Cobra Night Raven.) And Scorchfire turned into the drone jet that hooked onto her. Powerlinked, Scorchfire would eject blades from Windblade's wing that she could attach to her arm. (Just the one wing, because Armada was find of asymmetrical action features.) Back story: She was Starscream's wing-girl back in the early days and they had a falling out of sorts. And that's it! Hope you like it. (And I'm still taking commissions!)

#Windblade #transformers armada #minicons #scorchfire #autobots

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sternerstufftoys · 4 years

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He looks like soap

It is (still) the year 1986... ...The M25 is finally completed. There are no service stations. Life in London becomes exponentially more the same. ...five million Americans decide that holding hands across the length of the country is good enough for a day out... ...and in The Transformers, the hottest new henchman confuses kids across the world with what exactly he's supposed to be...

I blame Floro Dery. Not for everything, you understand. We can't lay the blame for Derby County's persistently dismal league performance every spring at his feet, but for Scourge? It's all on Floro. This is what happens when you put all your efforts into designing a robot mode, and then have to decide what it could possibly turn into. And then some poor sod has to go and make a functioning toy out of it. So when you get that demonic spiky beard, blood-soaked claws and huge, flappy dragon wings to fold up into a vehicle you get...

...well I always thought it looked like a bar of soap with a head on it.

Scourge was always the lesser of the two henchmen following the 1986 movie. Cyclonus had Galvatron's ear, and (as much as possible) his trust. Cyclonus was the middle-class middleman, while Scourge was more working-class. He had to put the hours in, ordering his identical clones around, carrying out the boss's orders. Maximum effort, minimum reward. Even getting his hands on the Matrix was a disappointment, turning him into a melty-faced weirdo instead of anything cool. It's a shame, as there's still plenty to like about Scourge.

He got a slightly better deal in the Marvel comic, natch. Here he was still generally the lesser partner in his double act with Cyclonus, but had a far better survival instinct. Let's not forget that Scourge's self-sacrifice managed to save all of time and space in Time Wars, and prior to that he had tried everything to keep him and Cyclonus alive while stuck in the past. And he didn't have to micro-manage his clones either.

And I really wish I loved this Titans Return toy. It's weird and a little bit stupid, and I love stupid weirdos. There's nothing else quite like it, which is another mark in its favour. But... boy oh boy, does it ever look boring. The paint work on the robot is just plain blue from head to toe, with only a small splash of silver on his chest to help break it up. This just feels cheap and lazy, especially when compared to the Takara Legends variety. It's funny, with Blurr I actually liked his more plain TR deco for being a "platonic ideal" of the character, while here with Scourge, it just looks dull.

Neither does it help that it feels so wobbly. The neck is the biggest offender, though his wrists and that forehead-thingy are also far too loose. But luckily, this all goes away when you transform him into flying-soap mode. Here everything snaps together tightly, and you end up with... actually quite a cool-looking space fighter. Now with a proper cockpit for his titan master and a couple of fins near the back, it looks a lot more reasonable than ever it did before. It's not on the big side exactly, but it works as a fun little swishy spacemobile, so long as you get rid of his awful large gun. Like with most of the Titans Return line it has a great big gap for a titan master to sit in, which looks dumb and has no real point to it. Presumably it was a move to stave off the demand for targetmasters, but if so, that didn't work out so well.

I might put some silver paint on Scourge one day to help break up his monotonous robot mode colours. But I've been saying that for years and nothing has come of it yet, so it may well be that I'm full of crap. But if I do, fingers crossed it will make the difference and promote Scourge into the eternal soap dish that is my heart.

#transformers #toy review #maccadam #scourge #best bots of 1986

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recordicons · 5 years

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have just gone down a rabbit hole which started with me googling concept art for the 1986 transformers movie and ended in reading about how floro dery, one of the major artists for the original series, apparently got so mad about people giving credit for certain g1 designs to their actual designers and not to him that he searched his own name on transformers forums between 2002 and 2008 and posted under aliases to argue with people about it, up to and including arguing in the tfwiki’s forum section about his own tfwiki article which had already cataloged all of the bullshit he had pulled. anyway this is my new favorite image

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jazzluca · 3 years

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WRECK-GAR ( Voyager ) Movie Studio Series 86 - 09

Fra i meriti del primo film animato dei Transformers, nel 1986, va annoverato quello di aver ampliato la cosmogonia del loro universo ( anche se qualche accenno s'era già intravisto nella stagione 2 del cartone ), così che al cinema i bimbi americani dell'epoca fecero anche la conoscenza di WRECK-GAR, capo della tribù dei Junkion, bizzara specie di cugini dei Cybertroniani, abitanti del bizzarro pianeta spazzatura Junk, dalle bizzarre abitudini e costumi dovuti anche alle trasmissioni da tv spazzatura terrestre di cui sono amanti.

Ora, personalmente non sono mai stato un gran fan di Wreck-Gar, anche se a farmi avvicinare di più a questo personaggio c'è riuscita la sua geniale versione Animated, ma è innegabile che questo Studio Series 86 è davvero bello, sin dalla sua modalità di ROBOT, innanzitutto anche perchè grande e imponente come Voyager, in perfetta scala coi settei e alto quanto un Optimus Prime.

Ma soprattutto è sputato al suddetto settei del cartone, laddove il "povero" giocattolo G1 originale era sì basato su un disegno preliminare di Floro Dery ( colui che ha creato tutti i protagonisti del film del 1986 ), ma il modellino lo peggiorava con testone, braccine esili e gambone sproporzionate.

Lo Studio Series è uno spettacolo a vedersi, ben piazzato, robusto e solido, con tutti i dettagli iconici sino agli aculei su braccia e gambe, laser mobili sul petto e con gli unicissimi difetti di avere i manubri dietro la schiena, ma non danno alcun fastidio, figuriamoci.

Anche cromaticamente è una bellezza, variopinto come nel cartone ma senza risultare arlecchinesco ed inguardabile. Non ci sono neanche stonature o citazioni al giocattolo ( a parte i succitati manubri sulla schiena ), e la testa e faccia sono scolpiti ottimamente, con i baffi e pizzetto lunghi il giusto.

Come accessori mancherebbe il fucile, ma nel cartone ( o almeno nel solo film ) non si vede, quindi c'è tutto il resto, ovvero l'ascia a 4 lame, con queste che ruotano come una ventola, ma non so se il fatto di ruotare citi quella dei cartoni, dato che quella del modellino G1 era fissa, e le due ruote, davvero ben fatte e scolpite e pure loro colorate fedelmente, con tanto di aculei rossi nei copertoni.

Le ruote non sono uguali, con una più sottile dell'altra ( la posteriore rispetto all'anteriore ) e si infilano negli aculei ( belli lunghi!! ) ai lati di ginocchia e polsi, ma questi fori ( con le ruote che girano indipendentemente da questi ) vanno bene anche nelle spine da 5mm delle armi. L'ascia, invece, grazie ad una spina più piccola si può sistemare a riposo nell'apposito foro dietro la schiena.

E a proposito di armi e di fori per esse, ce ne sono uno per lato sui polpacci e gli ormai comuni fori sotto i piedi.

Infine, il robot è assai articolato, al meglio della media dei WfC, con sì le caviglie che si piegano ma nel senso che i piedi si aprono lateralmente... vabbè, a parte ciò questi si muovono pure frontalmente, i pugni ruotano nonostante la trasformazione comune che li fa ripiegare negli avambracci, la testa ha abbastanza lasco di movimento anche frontale, e volendo, grazie alla TRASFORMAZIONE, può piegare in avanti il busto rispetto al bacino.

Questa ricalca fedelmente quella dell'originale, anche se nel busto è più elaborata, con questo che si apre frontalmente, per poter liberare da dentro l'effettivo muso della moto che si ribalta verso l'alto, con la testa che vi si infila dentro, seguita dal petto che si sistema frontalmente, e le braccia che si incastrano lì sotto ( da sottolineare che la schiena del robot dev'essere ribaltata tutta all'indietro rispetto al pannello che la collegherebbe al bacino, sennò non si riesce ad incastrare bene la parte del petto e testa con i moduli grigi che sostengono le braccia ).

Infine, le gambe sono banalissime nel piegarsi in avanti a livello delle ginocchia e bloccarsi tramite le pumte dei piedi sotto le spalle, con il pannelli dispiegati del bacino che formano la sella. Ah, e ovviamente bisogna sistemare le ruote fra gambe e braccia!

La MOTOCICLETTA risultante, futuristica ma non troppo, è davvero bella e robusta, fedele ovviamente alla versione cartoon anche se qualcosina non combacia, essendo questa più aerodinanica e meno tozza ( a parte le braccia che tengono la ruota anteriore ) e mancando del parafanghi anteriore, ma si perdonano volentieri queste leggere inacuratezze guardando il veicolo nel suo complesso.

Fa un po' tristezza l'ascia / ventola che si attacca dietro il mezzo tramite la spinuccia e che sembra un'elica posteriore buttata lì, laddove ci sarebbe posto, volendo, nello spazio fra le braccia, ed infatti grazie ad un forellino sulle spalle è possibile incastrarvi lì l'arma, anche se s'intravedono le lame da sotto, vabbè.

Fra i dettagli scicchettosi, oltre alle fiamme dorate sul serbatoio, vanno segnalati i contachilometri dietro la testa del robot che ora appaiono nella loro posizione all'interno del muso della moto. Inoltre, molto utili i cavvalletti per tenere dritta la moto, formati da pannelli che si aprono da quelli che erano i polpacci del robot.

Ma come nei cartoni, anzi, proprio come nel film dove vengono introdotti gli abitanti di Junk, è possibile far cavalcare la moto ad un altro Wreck-Gar, o anche meglio, aspettare il suo prossimo remold delle fattezze di un altro Junkion per ricreare quelle scene, grazie ad una apposita spina sulla sella che si incastra sotto il pube dei nostri, o anche senza usare questa, la moto può essere guidata tranquillamente da altri modellini, grazie all'alta posabilità di questi, preferibilmente Deluxe ma anche i Voyager riescono a starci decentemente.

Infine, un gran bel modello, che finalmente rispecchia fedelmente il personaggio visto nei cartoni ( laddove il Deluxe Reveal the Shield di quasi 10 anni fa per quanto bello era parecchio reinterpretato ), solido e assai giocabile in entrambe le modalità, che aggiunge carisma ad un bot che già di suo ne avrebbe a palate, o che magari rende più digeribile questo Autobot onorario piuttosto sui generis, dipende dai punti di vista. ^^

#transformers #wreckgar #junkion #autobot #autorobot #chopper #generations #studio series 86 #voyager #transformers the movie 1986 #hasbro #recensione #review

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golden-x-mage · 4 years

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“floro dery did the designs for ultraman usa” is so fucking wild but also entirely checks out

#sorry for textposting #who else are you gonna get for that in 1987 really

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allspark · 5 years

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Brian Ruckley (A) Angel Hernandez (A/CVR B) Cachet Whitman (CVR A) Andrew Griffith

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Stan Lee (A) Dan Barry (A/CVR) Floro Dery

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Erik Burnham (A/CVR A) Christopher Jones

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Katie Cook (A) Eduard Petrovich, Rosa La Barbera, Monica Catalano (CVR) Disney

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Mateus Santolouco (A/CVR A) Mateus Santolouco (CVR B) Kevin Eastman

The Shredder’s long road through the depths of hell reaches a fever pitch as he is forced to face echoes of his own soul! With lives on the line, who will survive the raging inferno? Fan-favorite artist Mateus Santolouco returns to the world of TMNT! The most infamous villain in the TMNT universe gets his own mini-series!

TMNT SHREDDER IN HELL #3

Mateus Santolouco (A/CVR A) Mateus Santolouco (CVR B) Kevin Eastman

Join the IDW Hasbro Shared Universe related conversation here in our Comics Discussion and Reviews section and here for all other franchises, superheroes, or general comic book discussions! Not a member? Join our community by creating your own free account here! Or jump right into the live chat on our Discord server or our Facebook Group!

IDW Comics Shipping List for May 15th! It’s time for our weekly Diamond Comics Shipping List! Check out some great titles IDW has in store for us next week like…

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sternerstufftoys · 5 years

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Strax the way (uh-huh uh-huh) I like it (uh-huh uh-huh)

One of the great constants of Transformers media is the need to sell toys. And in the deregulated Reagan days of the 1980s that was even more noticeable. So whenever a character showed up in the cartoon or comics - especially the comics - you knew they weren't protected by the iron claw of capitalistic excess, and had every chance of snuffing it before you reached the back cover.

Hello Lord Straxus. Yes, I'm aware of the irony of a non-toy character getting a toy. Yes, I know it's frustrating that it didn't come with an accompanying comic or cartoon tie-in. I understand that this is all upside-down. Yes, I'll tell them. Just give me a moment, sweetheart. Eat your chips.

I really like the issues of the G1 Marvel comic where Straxus makes his appearances. They're one of several occasions where Bob Budiansky seemed to be getting a little bored of the status quo and decided to shake things up. They also fill the need to shill the new 1985 toy line-up... in February 1986. So back on Cybertron a whole load of familiar characters (Blaster, the Coneheads, that crowd) had spent the last 4 million years palling around with never-before-seen nobodies like Scrounge and Straxus. Guess who didn't make it out of the two-parter alive?

Ah, but that's the clever bit, as Straxus returned as a disembodied head in a jar, where he switched his old-fashioned brute force for some surprisingly effective scheming, making a play to take over the body of Megatron, and... possibly succeeding? Yeah, it's a confusing time to be poor Megs. Fun fact: because these were the only Straxus stories I read as a kid and the jar or the Mountain Dew filling it was green, I thought for most of my life that that was Straxus's natural colour. I was quite surprised to see his original appearances had him in blue and red.

Or indeed, blue and lighter blue, as we have here. Thanks to an inconsistent colouring, Hasbro and Takara could release subtley different versions of Straxus, and this one with the blue limbs is the Japanese release. I must admit that I would have liked the red arms and thighs, but this is the one that was available, so this is the one I got. It's certainly a striking look, as being originally designed a) in America and b) not by Floro Dery Straxus gets a head design that's a healthy distance from the standard mecha 'face-in-a-helmet' look that the Diaclone boys rocked without being too far away to not look like a Transformer. The helmet's more of an ancient Egyptian headdress, the face sunken behind a jawless skull mask thing, and the whole head set in a perma-scowl. Straxus looks like he should be on the cover of the kind of death metal album the T-800 buys on his day off.

Then you've got the massive rack with the inverse Triforce logo, the massive angry Pickaxe Of Command and a bunch of little C-clip guns to scatter wherever you like on him and Straxus is looking almost overqualified to be a Decepticon boss. Like, not the final boss, but the super-difficult one 2/3 of the way through when your party's not properly levelled up yet.

Transformation however is a nightmare. Honestly he still ranks as the fiddliest pile of polymers in my collection (non-3rd party category) and I have to admit it has been a while since I last grappled with getting him into another mode. It's all doable, but remembering the right order to move each bit is too much for my feverish imp brain. Still, it's with good reason, as the legs do all sorts of contortions to flip up, around and onto the top to become a nice chunky tank turret with a hugely overcompensating barrel.

This is definitely a long-range artillery beast, although the cheery blue colour scheme makes it look like it was repurposed by some overzealous police force... presumably in Hyrule. It's clearly supposed to represent something ludicrously large judging by the scale of the cockpit, and you might be a little put off by him being just a deluxe... but deluxes are still the standard size for a transformer toy, and it does look very neat and tidy alongside a deluxe jetformer, so everything's fine. Kids, don't fall into the trap of assuming everything has to be massive. Deluxe is still fine.

Fiddly transformation aside, I'll never not love this Straxus. He's a big ugly heap of angry and all the better for it. I do feel a bit for the Japanese collectors who, for the most part, would have been a little bemused by a character they didn't recognise since it didn't ever show up in the G1 cartoon. Not even in the background, getting sloshed with Devcon or something. Death metal in America, indie band you've probably never heard of in Japan.

#transformers #maccadam #straxus #toy review #decepticon leaders

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